Problemista (2024)

[StatisticalOutlier]

I don't think the trailer really does it justice.

It's getting a rather limited release, which is a shame because it's a whole lot of fun.  This is the first movie Julio Torres has directed, and he has a remarkably sure hand.  I loved the images of the Roosevelt Island tram--he chose to show shadows instead of the tram itself.  I always like wondering, "What made him think of that?"

Tilda Swinton is bonkers.  Elizabeth is the worst person in the world but I just couldn't make myself hate her.  And about Tilda Swinton's hair--here's what Torres said on Fresh Air:

"First we talked color, and we decided that she should have the kind of red hair that you see in the streets, but you rarely see in film because it's not a shade of red that anyone aims to get. It's the shade of red that something wrong happened, and then you ended up with that shade of red. It's, like, almost, like, a little purply. And then her haircut - the idea was that her haircut would be at odds with her hair texture so that her hair was just constantly in a fight with itself. And that really gave Tilda the fuel for the character of just imagining that every time that Elizabeth sees her reflection in the mirror, she's adjusting her bangs, she's adjusting the size of her fringes and she gets so angry about the hairdresser who promised her that she would look exactly like the photo she showed her in a magazine. We made this whole fantasy of, like, she walked away from the hair salon with all these products that she's supposed to use every day, but of course she doesn't."

Her hair is constantly in a fight with itself.  Brilliant.

Also, at the very end of the credits, there's a statement that since the filming of the movie, Bank of America has changed its overdraft fees to $10, with a maximum of two per day (or something along those lines), ending with "We are legally required to tell you this."  😀

[StatisticalOutlier]

I just remembered that at the end, they showed one of the freezer rooms

Spoiler

and the blue cord was unplugged.

Surely that was intentional.  I'm not sure why, though.  But I congratulated myself for noticing.